Mobile optimisation A must for SEO

Mobile optimisation

Mobile optimisation refers to how a business can edit a website and change the layout, size, usability and keywords in order to suit a user on a mobile or tablet.

The main differences between SEO and mobile optimisation consist of formatting and the fact the SEO is based on results and websites that appear on a PC, which is bigger, has different users and is used differently. Whereas Mobile optimisation is how a business edits the website in order to make it easier to view on the smaller screen, so it may have different keywords because it will have less information.

File formats are different on SEO and mobile optimisation. This is because mobiles may not be able to handle flash, as a PC can, so therefore a business may have to change the format of things in order to optimise it for mobile users. SEO is about optimising the information on a website in order for it to appear at the top of the rankings on a search, whereas mobile optimisation is all about how to view that said website on a smaller, less capable device. Mobile optimisation may include an option for text only, so that the user can read the website without it being difficult on a mobile. Whereas, SEO is about editing images and videos using keywords to up the rankings, so on a mobile you may not see this and this may not be relevant.

A Mobile optimisation website will be different and will be mobile optimised more than it will be SEO. It will include links from mobile specific directories that will not be shown on a search engine using a PC. Websites will be simplified and the usability will become easier on a mobile site. This is not a necessity when using SEO on a website that is not a mobile website.

Mobile optimisation is important to a business because the amount of people that search and browse the web using a mobile is at an all time high. If they do not have the option of a mobile website, where it is responsive design or not, it means that you are available as a website to everyone and not just limiting yourself to those using a computer or laptop.

Mobile optimisation

I have researched some stats on Mobile optimisation which tell you why is it is important to use mobile optimisation on your website as a business.

57% of mobile users will not recommend a website that has a bad Mobile Website. This means you could potentially not only be losing customers but losing the amount of exposure and sharing you get from potential customers.

Over a quarter of all adults source information using a mobile. So if your business is not optimised to be seen on a mobile the amount of customers you may lose could be massive.

79% of people prefer using mobile sites to look at product or services reviews. If your business doesn’t appear and other businesses do then your brand is not out there and the awareness is limited.

There are many different ways to optimise a website for viewing on a mobile device. One of these may be a call to action button that is clear. For example, on sites such as Zoopla for Mobile optimisation (Used for viewing houses to rent and buy) if you view it on a mobile there are clear call to action buttons like “Call estate agent”, “Email Agent” and also “Save”. These are clear buttons that are easy to navigate and use. The “Call Agent” button directly enters in the phone number and all the user has to do is press the green phone in order to book a viewing of the house. This is optimised like this to make the navigation easier and also to make it so easy for people that they want to view and act on the services and products for sale.

Another way to optimise a website for mobile use is by using concise and possibly even larger text. This makes reading easier as the device is a lot smaller and so if they are on a normal web page reading the text can become difficult. Another way to get round this is to allow zoom from a mobile on the page, so users can make writing the size they would like and still see all the information rather than a shortened version like some businesses may create. As mentioned above, no flash and text only options are also other ways to optimise a website forMobile optimisation use.

Geo-location tags may be used when optimising a website because on mobiles it is easy to turn on the location services, so therefore, a website may have a direct link to maps (Google maps or other) that allows navigation to the address of the company straight from one click on the website. This makes everything quicker and more efficient.

Keywords and or key phrases may differ on a mobile to a computer because different people use mobiles, mobiles are known for being part of the younger generation and different ages use different language in order to search for things on search engines, therefore the keywords may differ. For example, on a mobile someone may use an abbreviation or shortened words when searching for something because the device is smaller and typing takes longer and is more difficult, so they may search “FB” instead of Facebook. So the Keyword may differ unlike that of a non mobile site.

Mobile optimisation sites

Another reason may be because mobile sites are shortened generally so therefore may only include essential keywords and or phrases because when Mobile optimisation you may only have the space in the layout for important information and there may be less detail. The text on a mobile site is more concise, so therefore the keywords used to find the site would be more concise as well.

Mobile users will often be looking for completely different results to non mobile users, this is because they can only find the information they are looking for by directly searching for it differently. They may be more precise because they do not want to be sitting scrolling through large amounts of information or search options just to find what they are looking for as you can only see a certain amount of information on one page on a mobile due to the big size difference. This slightly contradicts the above point as they may be searching shorter keywords, but this is also more precise key phrases as well.

The changes a non mobile website would have to make would be to choose whether to use a responsive design or not. This refers to a website which automatically changes the layout for you or whether to optimise it manually and by yourself.

The first thing to do would be to ask you what the mobile user’s intent would be. Using Zoopla again, would their intent be to have a quick and precise call to action that is clear to find? If so then this is the first thing that needs to be Mobile optimisation and edited.

Is the design user friendly, can they read the text easily without squinting, if not is there an option to be able to zoom in on the text? Is there geo-tagging in order to make it easy to navigate to the address on the website with just one click. Not only that it makes it easy to find search results that are only nearby to your current location, so someone may search for the nearest MacDonald’s and the search results may give a distance and estimated time to get to the destination.

The next thing to consider is as mentioned in the previous Assessment Criteria, what keywords may be relevant to mobile users only, are these keywords shown on the website and Mobile optimisation for search engines as well. The keywords still need to be relevant and have a high monthly search rate in order to be successful. This is because even on a mobile, when you search using a search engine there are still rankings, so SEO does still apply in some ways, it’s just used differently and the algorithms look for different keywords and aspects on a mobile website.

Another thing to change is the Meta tags, ideally, they need to be less than 90 characters in order to succeed on a mobile website, this is because the mobile screen is smaller and it is important to adapt the Meta tags for this by using fewer characters and being more precise.

Lastly, make sure that the load time is quick, it should be between 2-3 seconds before the site opens as it is a fact that 74% of mobile users bounce if the site takes longer than 5 seconds to load.

I hope this is useful for you and please feel free to sign up and connect with me